CNN 'to switch to PowerBooks'

CNN will equip its news teams with PowerBooks as part of its restructuring plan, according to reports.

The company is expected to arm small news teams with Apple's laptop and DV cameras.

An article on CNN's Web site said: "Who says you can't do big-studio video editing on a laptop?" It continues by describing a reporters experience using a PowerBook G3 to edit images captured by a FireWire-equipped digital-video camera.

Software solution The CNN report also praises Apple's professional video-editing suite Final Cut Pro, calling it "powerful", but adding that learning its uses takes "a lot of time".

Rumours of a major news provider making a switch to PowerBook-equipped journalism teams first emerged in February 2000, at Apple UK's Solutions for Video event.

Herve Petit, then of LaCie, revealed: "We are talking with a major news broadcaster to develop a mobile solution for the company - PowerBooks and Final Cut Pro from Apple, LaCie for storage, Sony for the cameras. The idea is to be able to drop a journalist in a jungle, with the tools to act as a small mobile news-gathering unit."

If the reports are correct, then this move potentially opens up a series of new markets for Apple.